I guess you need to go back to school mate. You specifically said that Fernando heralds himself as one of the greats. Above you quote him perfectly, to be one of the greats. That's far different than heralding himself(proclaiming) himself as one of the greats. Forget the quote the other guys are talking about, you were absolutely incorrect with your assertion. The guy has never said, I am one of the greats, as you assert. Therefore you are simply wrong. It's black & white, no gray area here.

You have a reading comprehension problem. Clearly. I never said he said "I am one of the greatest".

You quoted what I said, don't put words in my mouth.

I said he said "to be one of the greats", its right there. If you want to be so sensitive and picky, I used the word "herald" when I asked would you hear Vettel "herald himself as one of the greats" (notice not the GREATEST).

Nonsense. Check by themselves how? Looking at endless footage in internet? Most of which is blurred by rain? For God's sake, I have even read somewhere that the slow motion gif that was presented as definitive proof had been tampered with! And while I do not necessarily buy that, I don't see why Ferrari should go around in circles instead of openly asking the question. Only those who are willing to use any excuse to diss the team would find reason for offense in such a thing. "FIA, was there a green flag there? Yes, there was one. Cool, thanks and see you in February." Quick and easy.

they could have done it quietly. What do you think would have been their reaction/next step should the FIA have said "yes, he did pass under yellow"?

Being Spanish too, completly agree. Alonso is talking about HIS feelings regarding that he is much more respected and appreciated now than in precedent years. He's not bragging of himself, but saying, in a humble way, that he feels more respected now by the whole grid (including journalists, teams, other drivers, etc) than in the past. Even in the days he was 2 times a champion...

Speaking in Spanish, and to make the story short, Alonso is saying that he's so proud about the work of the team, mechanics, engineers, team-mate, etc... He says that this one was his best season, and the only thing that failed was the car, not the engineers who built the car, nor anyone... Just that he needed a better car. No offensive words against anyone...

Alonso is blaming the car-crashes he had in Spa and Japan. No one else. Fortuite crashes. And about Brazil, he's just saying that a lot of Ferrari fans asked about the yellow-green flags-gate and then Ferrari had to ask for a clarify. Nothing else. Once FIA said that everything was alright, there was not further intention or further clarification. "I was on holydays and I heard something about green or yellow flags. I had no connections to internet, and I was enjoying my holydays and focussing in 2013 season... I heard something about, but nothing to do with it".

The damage it's already done, press manipulation wins again. It's time for him to give as less interviews as possible and say basically nothing when he is interviewed.

I read the last two pages and there seems to be a mixture of two interviews or journalists are making things up:

Can you tell me what is the original quote (if the interview was not in English) for this specific statement: "Although I don’t have as many titles as Fangio or Schumacher I see myself as one of the best Formula 1 drivers.” in the Gazetta.

I read the last two pages and there seems to be a mixture of two interviews or journalists are making things up:

Can you tell me what is the original quote (if the interview was not in English) for this specific statement: "Although I don’t have as many titles as Fangio or Schumacher I see myself as one of the best Formula 1 drivers.” in the Gazetta.

I think your confused. I said what I said and I mean it, I find it quite weird he has to sooth his own ego by referring himself as "one of the greats". This whole "greatest" thing is something you and your friend made up in your own head.

I'm not slipping away with anything, I never implied he said he was the best ever, just that I found it weird that he felt the need to refer to himself as "one of the greats".

I would not expect Vettel for example to feel the need to "name drop" like that, despite the fact that many people are starting to consider him as "one of the greats".

Its just a touch of Alonsos good old megalomania getting the better of him again. He has a sense of entitlement that is unhealthy at best. And once in a while his massive ego and sometimes paranoia slips out the cracks. Alonso fans wont like to hear this but its happened so many times that one cant just ignore it.. For example, publicly accusing his team of not wanting him to win the title in 06 because he was going to another team is a textbook example of looming paranoia.

That is exactly how I feel when I come to these forums too , 85% of the threads are pretty much FA bashing threads and if they are not then someone always finds a way to make to bash FA and end up being a FA bashing thread , it appears that even that they consider FA to be a sore loser it also looks like they are sore winners , most SV /RB fans should be happy that they won and not bash Alonso at every opportunity , also a lot of bashing and trolling happens and there is a lack of moderation

Lets face it. If it wasnt for the fact that Alonso is the great driver he is, no one would put up with the crap he has spewn over the years in different instances. Neither fans or teams. Nor would they tolerate he always being in the midst of every major scandal in F1 for the past decade. The guy is shady as heck but also one heck of a driver. Which I guess is why so many people choose to look away from his obvious personality shortcomings.

He is a ticking bomb that will seem perfectly fine in his comfortzone and when groomed and attended and treated like number 1. Take him outside of that zone - teammate starts to regularly beat him in qualifying, does not get preferential treatment, no progress in the car and so on, and the true Alonso starts to seep out. And its not a pretty sight when that happens. Which is why people react. And Alonso fans just have to accept that if they wanna stay his fans. Because one thing is for certain - it will happen again.

I said he said "to be one of the greats", its right there. If you want to be so sensitive and picky, I used the word "herald" when I asked would you hear Vettel "herald himself as one of the greats" (notice not the GREATEST).

What, the guy who compared his struggles with a broken gearbox at last year's Brazilian GP to that of Ayrton Senna's amazing race in 1991 or whose reaction this year to being told by his boss about the other great drivers who had won three WDCs that he was now on a par with was to point out how he'd forgotten Alain Prost? Nah, I'm sure he would always shrink from such comparisons.

What, the guy who compared his struggles with a broken gearbox at last year's Brazilian GP to that of Ayrton Senna's amazing race in 1991 or whose reaction this year to being told by his boss about the other great drivers who had won three WDCs that he was now on a par with was to point out how he'd forgotten Alain Prost? Nah, I'm sure he would always shrink from such comparisons.

What is bad about it? I am also one of the best in what I do. Some people hate me for that but those who admire it prevail and that makes me satisfied

Well, I first would have liked to check whether he actually said it. Quite often, discussions are pointless, because it turns out that it's just bad journalism.

Assuming he said it, there are two aspects to this statement:

1. Whether it is true or not: Personally, I see Alonso as roughly a top 10 all time great, but not on par with Schumacher, Fangio, Clark, Senna and Prost yet. I would say that it's too early to compare with the 2 most successful drivers in terms of WDCs. Titles aren't everything, but you also cannot simply ignore that Fangio has 3 and Schumacher 5 more titles (and MS also narrowly lost out on titles despite good performance). Strictly speaking, he didn't say that he considers himself to be equal to Fangio and Schumacher, but the statement is very close to it.

2. Whether there is a need to publicly make such statements: In my opinion certainly not. It comes across as very arrogant.

I also doubt whether this and similar statements actually help the team. Maybe having a more realistic self-critical attitude would help to squeeze more performance out of the car over the season.

TBH the comments from 2007 are really biting the team in the a55. Claiming that McLaren asking for CLARIFICATION are shameless hypocrites...Why is it any different now?

OTOH I´m glad that FA has remained outside the controversy (at least officially) but at the same time I would not think it a bad thing if Fernando had come out and told his fans to get over it, SV won on the track.

Actually he did, and I think generally the discussion about the clarification is a bit of yet another case of ascribing too much meaning to certain single quotes without (necessarily) ever seeing the whole picture. I'm at the Canary Islands right now and the local weekly newspaper ("Canarias 7") has an article about Alonso being in the area, which quotes him as saying that there is no used dwelling on what happened in Brazil, but that they felt they needed to ask FIA for clarification on behalf of the many Ferrari fans who emailed them about the flag incident. Kind of what Domenicali said in his statement, but Alonso's exact words in quotes in this local paper (knowing that they would never be read outside of its narrow circulation) sounded very sincere.

Its just a touch of Alonsos good old megalomania getting the better of him again. He has a sense of entitlement that is unhealthy at best. And once in a while his massive ego and sometimes paranoia slips out the cracks. Alonso fans wont like to hear this but its happened so many times that one cant just ignore it.. For example, publicly accusing his team of not wanting him to win the title in 06 because he was going to another team is a textbook example of looming paranoia.

And, for example, Raikkonen hinting that his own team let him go just because of money is paranoia too, or in this case, since it suits your agenda, one should consider it the gospel truth?

Lets face it. If it wasnt for the fact that Alonso is the great driver he is, no one would put up with the crap he has spewn over the years in different instances. Neither fans or teams. Nor would they tolerate he always being in the midst of every major scandal in F1 for the past decade. The guy is shady as heck but also one heck of a driver. Which I guess is why so many people choose to look away from his obvious personality shortcomings.

He is a ticking bomb that will seem perfectly fine in his comfortzone and when groomed and attended and treated like number 1. Take him outside of that zone - teammate starts to regularly beat him in qualifying, does not get preferential treatment, no progress in the car and so on, and the true Alonso starts to seep out. And its not a pretty sight when that happens. Which is why people react. And Alonso fans just have to accept that if they wanna stay his fans. Because one thing is for certain - it will happen again.

And if it doesn't, some people will make sure to exaggerate and twist any little incident until it turns into the next major scandal in F1, so they can go on claiming such a thing.

You seem to imply that Spygate should be placed squarely in Alonso's shoulders, when in fact McLaren was spying on Ferrari before Alonso joined the team (Raikkonen provided a letter to prove that point during the FIA investigation) and none of Alonso's two email exchanges refers to the 700-page dossier which was the core of the matter (both are dated prior to said dossier being handed to Coughlan). As for Crashgate, from FIA to Nelson Piquet Jr everybody who had any direct exposure to the matter state that as far as they can tell Alonso didn't know anything, but it would seem that in your opinion that fact should not be taken into account, because it does not support the image of Alonso as Dick Dastardly.

Alonso is not a saint, and he certainly hates losing; Hamilton does not seem to take to it lightly either, and the same goes for Vettel - plus I doubt you can claim that Helmut Marko is nicer to the other Red Bull and Toro Rosso drivers than Briatore ever was to the other Renault driver, can you?

The only "wrong" thing Alonso said is saying "I don't care what people think of me in Germany". Basically because I'm pretty sure there are germans who support Alonso. If in Spain there are people who support Vettel, there've got to be people in Germany supporting Alonso.

Hatred posts here and journalistic abuse are now too much for my little heart, I will be back in March. Being a FA fan can be difficult.

I think it's kind of being insecure regarding the bashers. Alonso is just 1.71m but his shadow got deep within people's hearts and minds as they know what Alonso can do with a car that can realistically achieve a WDC. See this last year, after such a difficult first quarter and a bad comeback from the summer and he lost only by 3 points...

About the journalistic abuse, well, I think it was Faith from Mirror's Edge who said something like "there aren't news anymore, just propaganda". That's true, what it matters is to sell papers or get people clicking their sites. Therefore, if they twist and exaggerate the better I guess.

Performing remote diagnosis of a person you don't know based on selective quotes in the media: the mark of a true professional psychiatrist.

I want to believe it's just a thing from Internet and that people isn't really like that.

The rest is completely OK, doesn't have the meaning some people in here are suggesting, but those prejudiced people want to twist the declarations in purpose.

Define 'fair' in that case. Fernando was asked what he thought of the reaction in Germany about Ferrari asking for clarification (aka reaction of the german press and there were some bashing articles, as usual), and he answered he doesn't know what has been written, but that people on the street give him hugs (and they do) calling him 'Samurai' and 'Gladiator' (Spaniards are a lot more emotional mind you), which made some people here suggest he needs a psychiatrist.

It was a press conference he gave in Valencia so i'm quite sure its all translated from a spanish press conference.

Define 'fair' in that case. Fernando was asked what he thought of the reaction in Germany about Ferrari asking for clarification (aka reaction of the german press and there were some bashing articles, as usual), and he answered he doesn't know what has been written, but that people on the street give him hugs (and they do) calling him 'Samurai' and 'Gladiator' (Spaniards are a lot more emotional mind you), which made some people here suggest he needs a psychiatrist.

It was a press conference he gave in Valencia so i'm quite sure its all translated from a spanish press conference.

I mean that although he directed that sentence to the media that bashed him in Germany, his German supporters could feel alluded.

The only "wrong" thing Alonso said is saying "I don't care what people think of me in Germany". Basically because I'm pretty sure there are germans who support Alonso. If in Spain there are people who support Vettel, there've got to be people in Germany supporting Alonso.

You are reading too much into it, he clearly meant the press, it's all about the context. Why wouldn't he care for his German fans?.

motorhead, they are asking him about Germany because what the German press is writting, or do you think the Spanish journalists go to German forums to check the opinion of German fans and then tell him, hey Fernando, some people in Germany is writting crap about you in some random forum.

From the original article. 'Regarding the critisism that has come from Germany' (related to Ferrari asking for clarification about the flags), as kosmos already said, its very unlikely they asked german fans or read in german forums. But there were quite some hate articles in the german press. That he added he doesn't care because he sees the reactions of the people on the street ('aka 'the fans') makes it quite clear, also he has not said for the first time that the picture painted of him in the media at times seems to be quite different from the support he gets at the races. I remember Fernando mentioning that before in interviews.

Yes, this is just an unfortunate common side effect of the longstanding practice of stitching together all the answers given by drivers to press conference questions, making it seem as if the drivers ae delivering spontaneous, unprompted utterances. It's annoying when they do this because yes, the loss of the original context sometimes changes the meaning of the responses quite a bit.

The only "wrong" thing Alonso said is saying "I don't care what people think of me in Germany". Basically because I'm pretty sure there are germans who support Alonso. If in Spain there are people who support Vettel, there've got to be people in Germany supporting Alonso.

I'm sure he referred to the media in Germany, not to his (few) fans here.

Yes, this is just an unfortunate common side effect of the longstanding practice of stitching together all the answers given by drivers to press conference questions, making it seem as if the drivers ae delivering spontaneous, unprompted utterances. It's annoying when they do this because yes, the loss of the original context sometimes changes the meaning of the responses quite a bit.

Domenicali also said that Kimi is the fastest driver he's ever seen. And as long as everyone seems to want to talk about Alonso, I will just say that I think he along with Hamilton are perhaps the two most overrated drivers in F1, as the only two years of an entire career where he was able to win were the two years he had the very clearly most championship-competitive car on the grid. All the other years he's done either poorly or not as well as others. He got beaten in one of his best seasons by a rookie who has gone on to only barely win a championship once in the 5 years since and was outscored over 3 years by a driver everyone had previously thought was washed up and had been a disappointment in F1. But I would prefer we not let this thread constantly get derailed by Kimi-haters and turned into a discussion of other drivers.

In 2005 the McLaren was really fast but I agree the Renault was a better car. However in 2006 it was 50/50 between Ferrari and McLaren. Renault was better at first and Ferrari during the second half.

Also, other than in 2010, I don't think Alonso has been doing poorly or not as well as others.

Well there was an article in el Pais, actually a rather poor&biased one, about some critical articles and some scathing headlines and quotes in German newspapers. As newspapers tend to they gave their own article a catchy headline like "Germany against Alonso" and somebody put a question in this regard to Alonso. All in all you are prone to say a couple of stupid things over a season in so many interviews, some of them done pumped with adrenalin and in this case Alonso delivered an answer which can easily presented as something arrogant.

From the original article. 'Regarding the critisism that has come from Germany' (related to Ferrari asking for clarification about the flags), as kosmos already said, its very unlikely they asked german fans or read in german forums. But there were quite some hate articles in the german press. That he added he doesn't care because he sees the reactions of the people on the street ('aka 'the fans') makes it quite clear, also he has not said for the first time that the picture painted of him in the media at times seems to be quite different from the support he gets at the races. I remember Fernando mentioning that before in interviews.

If you think, that articles that were trying to clear, what really happened (and that there truly was a green flag) are "hate" - then your understanding of emotions is quite weird. There where almost no pieces in german media which could be called as "hate" towards Alonso. Only notorious Bild tried to make a story out of the fuss of the spanish tabloids and attacked Alonso. But that's it. The rest of the media did their job and covered the story as it should have been done by their spanish colleagues.

If you think, that articles that were trying to clear, what really happened (and that there truly was a green flag) are "hate" - then your understanding of emotions is quite weird. There where almost no pieces in german media which could be called as "hate" towards Alonso. Only notorious Bild tried to make a story out of the fuss of the spanish tabloids and attacked Alonso. But that's it. The rest of the media did their job and covered the story as it should have been done by their spanish colleagues.

I don't know what the spanish press wrote and no, of course i don't consider articles who just cover a story 'hate articles'. But of course there was more than only BILD (and it seems spanish journalists read BILD a lot) so the spanish press made out of that 'Germany against Alonso' (which is another piece of sensational journalism). And that is what they asked him about in the press conference, which is what i wanted to point out.

I will just say that I think he along with Hamilton are perhaps the two most overrated drivers in F1, as the only two years of an entire career where he was able to win were the two years he had the very clearly most championship-competitive car on the grid. All the other years he's done either poorly or not as well as others.

The damage it's already done, press manipulation wins again. It's time for him to give as less interviews as possible and say basically nothing when he is interviewed.

I don't think there is any damage. Fernando has been great on and off the track all year - many more people respect him than still a year ago. Hearts and Minds is a good read written by someone who has been in the middle of the action for years - it represents the real feeling in the paddock much better than what some people in forums or the press make it out to be.

I don't think there is any damage. Fernando has been great on and off the track all year - many more people respect him than still a year ago. Hearts and Minds is a good read written by someone who has been in the middle of the action for years - it represents the real feeling in the paddock much better than what some people in forums or the press make it out to be.

I stopped paying attention to anything Darren Heath (that author) had to say on anything except photography after following him on twitter for a while. He is an idiot, endlessly spouting smug toss on a wide range of subjects, always with the same misplaced confidence. Final straw: seeing him raging about how a BBC documentary earlier this year on autism wasn't drawing on Andrew Wakefield's utterly discredited work on the MMR jab. ("Why was no mention made of alleged link of #MMR jab to #autism on #BBC4 prog 'Growing Children'? A glaring omission.")

He also laughed on Twitter about how Hamilton was going around the paddock looking so miserable in the run up to the Spa weekend and to cheer up for god's sake. When Lewis had just suffered a death in his close family and in fact had actually been spending his time in the hospice with her when he had to leave for the race weekend. She died the day after he left to travel to Belgium. Hamilton had spoken publicly about this at length and the tabloid press had been covering it but I guess mr finger-on-the-pulse missed it. Or maybe he didn't and thought he should cheer up anyway, suggesting he has literally no idea how people work.

I am sure we don't know even a quarter of what goes on behind closed doors but I'll not be taking Heath's word for it. He's a tool.

(edited to add: whoops, thought I was in the thread sparked by more of Darren Heath's ill-chosen words.)

Start of 2013"A worst start is impossible. We were more or less two and a half seconds behind at Jerez. I expect a better start. Red Bull will be the favourites, they ended this season with a strong dominance and, even if the front wing test has changed a little and the use of the DRS has been restricted on Satirdays, the seven or eight tenths of advantage they had are still there. We have to catch up in jst to months, not an easy task. There's a lot of work to do but the starting point is better. "

Red Bull and regulations"There have been several episodes where they have pushed to the limit and we haven't. I think they have to change car parts for the races because otherwise they wouldn't have been allowed to race, even if they have already raced before with that parts. But this is F1. It has always existed and it always will and we'll have to find the limits of the regulations too. Always within the legality but we have to reach the boundaries or find loopholes as other teams do in orther to find that extra performance."

Wind tunnel"The wind tunnel at Maranello is closed because big modifications must be done so it will be out of order for a couple of months. We'll use other ones that we have already used before so I don't see any problem or a negative point in that sense"

Lack of regulation changes for 2013"This season being the basis for 2013 will affect us. Red Bull and McLaren have part of the path already done. We finished probably behind Lotus and Force India, teams we should have beaten. So, this winter we have extra homework and we have to work hard. As I said, I'm not worried because this season we were two and a half seconds behind and we finished fighting for the title until the last race, next year is going to be better, I'm sure"

Fry quote about not resting well until Ferrari does 1-2 on qualy and race"We hope so, that's the goal for every team, do a 1-2 on both Saturday and Sunday. There are several teams that have achieved it recently. McLaren several times and Red Bull for the last three years, even Lotus had races with both drivers on the podium, Bahrain, Hungary... we probably haven't been able to do the same good work as a team on car performance terms. That's one of the goals for next season but it was also for this and we couldn't achieve it, it's avery years goal, we will try to achieve it this time."

Sebastian Vettel"Of course he is a deserving champion. The title goes to the driver who has more points than the rest and Vettel is the deserving champion"

2012 season"Some seasons you have the feeling you have done your work and others you have the feeling you could have done better, something you would have change or would like to improve for next season. This season I haven't got that kind of thoughts, I think the year has been perfect and it will be difficult to repeat in my career. I've never got that feeling of 20 races where you do a good Friday, a good Saturday and a good Sunday, where your physical preparation is good with no injuries, where everything goes according to plan, even strategies.""We didn't have any problem through the season besides car performance that kept us from achieving the results Felipe and me were looking for. Apart from that, once you know if you are the champion or not, the main goal for everyone, satisfaction is at max. level, specially these days just after the final round"

Brazil yellow flags controversy"I haven't seen the race again. I have already answered this during Ferrari World Finals. The pressure or need of asking for a clarification to the FIA was almost an obligation because of the fans and Ferrari supporters that have seen it on the Internet and wanted a clarification. Ferrari asked to the FIA and explanation of that particular case and the FIA answered there was a green flag. This way everyone has a clear answer, the fans and all the people. This way they know the decision was correct because the people who has all the data say there was a green flag there. Case closed."